


Wayfinder Farm

by Babenclaw



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: (Featuring Xehanort as the evil no good head of the JojaMart Corporation), (Mostly so Eraqus can kick him through the ceiling when the community center gets finished), A world in which Terra replaces Alex and Aqua gets to be The Farmer (tm), F/M, Gen, Good old down home country boy Terra, Stardew Valley AU, The Terra we need but not the one we deserve, your typical feel good fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-10-01 04:11:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17237168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babenclaw/pseuds/Babenclaw
Summary: Terra's life has always been a certain way. He's grown up with the same people, in the same place, living the same life. That is, until the buzz around town is all about a new farmer moving in to long-abandoned Wayfinder Farm.A feel-good Stardew Valley AU.





	1. Welcome Home

For Terra, life in Stardew Valley was always the same old thing every day. It was home, a place where he’d grown up throwing footballs in the spring and splashing with his brother, Ven, in the cerulean waters of the beach in the summer. He raked leaves for Mayor Eraqus in the fall and helped Miss Aerith take care of her animals in the winter. As far as Terra was concerned, that was just how his life was. Nothing really changed about their little town, not really. Not until recently.

The town had been abuzz about the new person for weeks before they’d arrived. A new farmer, everyone had said. The grandchild of the old man who had once cared for Wayfinder Farm, long enough ago that Terra could not remember him. He’d wondered what the new farmer would be like. Would he be friendly? He was coming from a big city after all; weren’t all those people supposed to be rude and fast-paced? Would he keep to himself, all alone on that lonely farm? Before he’d known it, the day had arrived. The whole town was awake with the dawn, milling about like a dozen tiny ants, all trying to pretend that they weren’t all hoping for a peek at the new person coming to infiltrate their tiny community. 

It didn’t take long for the rumors to start floating back. 

“The house is a right mess,” CIndy confided in him over the sound of her hammer striking her anvil. “Tifa went out with Mayor Eraqus to make sure the place was safe, y’know? Nobody’s been out there in years. She says there’s a hole in the ceiling and everything, the poor thing.” She paused to lift his axe for inspection, then nodded, satisfied, and handed it across to him. “I packed her up some tools and sent them out with the Mayor. Nothing fantastic, but they’re gonna be well used, I’m sure.”

“I hope they’re ready for the work,” Tifa said, offhandedly, as he helped her split logs later that morning. “There’s easily just a season of clearing land waiting for them here. The whole farm’s overrun.”

Terra grunted in reply, slamming his newly-repaired axe into the log in front of him.

“It’s gotta be hard, coming to a new place like this,” Tifa continued, replacing the log again. “For your first view to be a rundown shack…”

Terra wiped the sweat from his forehead and leaned against his axe, looking out toward the bus stop and, past that, Wayfinder Farm. “Is it that bad?”

Tifa nodded. “Worse.”

“Maybe I should stop by later. Offer some help clearing it out.”

Tifa smiled as she picked up a few split logs to carry back to storage. “Maybe you should. A little hospitality never hurt nobody.”

In Terra’s head, he imagined the new farmer would look a lot like his brother. Wiry, thin, a little too pale for life by the sea but happy anyway. Terra tried to imagine Ven clearing out an overrun field and almost choked on his beer.

“Somethin’ funny, Terra?” Cid asked over the bar. He was wiping out a glass- he always seemed to be wiping out glasses, even if it was well cleaned. Maybe he just liked to keep his hands busy. Terra had never asked.

“Nothing much,” Terra said. “Hey, have you heard anything about the new farmer?”

Cid grunted, but his polishing slowed a bit.

“That I did. In fact, she even came in to town a bit earlier. Somethin’ ‘bout introducing herself to everyone.”

Terra nodded before the full realization hit him. “Wait. She?”

Cid chucked. “Aye, ‘she.’ That a problem?”

Terra shook his head, but the new news made him wonder. She? What kind of woman would move away from her family, to the middle of nowhere, on the promise of a little farm?

Resolved to visit in the morning, he finished his beer, left some money on the counter for Cid, and headed out into the night toward home.

The next morning, he rolled out of bed with the sun, pulled on his muddy work boots, and slipped out of the house before Ven could even pry an eyelid open to ask him where he was going. He grabbed his tools- an axe, definitely, and his pickaxe in case there were any particularly stubborn stones- and started his walk toward Wayfinder Farm. 

The farm was a couple miles from town, about a twenty minute walk if he kept a good pace the whole way. When he was younger, he used to jog the path to the farm and back, passing the old bus station both ways. But that had been when the busses ran, and that had been before the town had started to really rely on him as a handyman. Now his days were full of helping people out. He didn’t mind; in fact, he kind of liked the little glow in his chest when someone thanked him for going out of his way. It was why he was on this dirt path at- he checked his watch- 6:50 in the morning, heading out to a derelict farm whose owner might not even be awake yet. He liked helping.

As he rounded the last corner, he started to hear what sounded like the thuds of an axe, followed by muttering. He took it as a sign that the farm’s owner was indeed up and tackling the mess she had found in the field. It was atrocious, really. Weeds stretched up to Terra’s waist in places, with overgrown trees casting shade in places where there had clearly once been open fields full of crops. Here and there, huge rotting logs blocked paths between tree trunks. A few feet in, under the canopy of trees, he could just barely see the rustling of grass that he hoped was a person. Though it might’ve been a scarecrow, to be fair.

“Hello?” Terra called into the weeds. The figure screamed, whirling around to prove that no, they had not been a scarecrow. An axe came up between the two of them, and Terra wasn’t quite sure if he should laugh or panic. He settled for putting his hands up between them.

“Whoah there,” he said, taking a step back. “Sorry to startle you. I’m Terra. Terra Maduro. I’m from Pelican Town.”

The figure peeked out from behind her axe, abruptly dropping it as soon as he said his name. Her face was bright pink beneath a wide-brimmed straw hat wound with pale blue ribbon, though he wasn’t sure if that was from the sun or the embarrassment.

“S-sorry,” she said, leaning awkwardly on the handle of her axe. It sunk into the soft earth beneath her and she stumbled forward before catching herself against a log. Terra noticed, with a small smirk, that the redness of her cheeks was not from the sun, as it deepend once she righted herself. 

“Sorry,” she said again, a little breathlessly, “I’m just a little jumpy. Not used to it being so…”

“Quiet?” Terra offered.

“Friendly.”

Terra laughed as he lowered his hands. “Nosey, I think you mean, but I’ll take it.”

Aqua removed her hat to wipe the sweat from her forehead as she laughed. “I was trying to be polite.”

Terra took a step forward, offering her hand out to her. “Then I guess I’ll be polite too. Terra Maduro.”

“You said that already,” Aqua said. Her handshake was firm, her hands soft. Not calloused from the work, or at least not yet.

“You’ve yet to give me yours, so I figured I would try again.”

Her eyes sparkled, the corners of her lips turned up as she released his hand. “Aqua. Aqua Maki.”

“Well then, Aqua Maki,” Terra said as he yanked her axe from the earth, “it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Same here.” Aqua took her axe back gratefully, shifting its wooden handle in her hands as she looked around her. “But if you don’t mind, I really should get back to work.”

Terra smiled, pulling his own axe out of his pack. “You didn’t think I’d come all the way out here just to be nosey, did you?”

Aqua looked surprised for a moment, staring at the axe in his hand, before shaking her head a little bit with a smile on her face. “To be fair, I don’t know you well enough to make that sort of judgement call, but if you want to be muscle out here, be my guest.” She pointed toward the door of the only building Terra could see. Tifa and Cindy had been right- if that was her house, it really was in poor shape. “I’m trying to clear the space in front of my house. Just enough to get a garden planted so I have something before the season ends, you know? There’s no way this’ll all be cleared in a day or two.”

It relieved Terra a bit to hear that she had some idea of the project’s scope. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if a season’s work could clear this whole farm. He couldn’t even see to the lake he knew rested somewhere in the middle of the property, let alone to the other side. He hefted his axe and smiled. “Got it.”

He spent the day working alongside her, felling trees and chopping them up for wood while she lugged the logs to the little overhang attached to her house. When he had no logs for her, she was on her knees digging up rocks or clearing weeds in big swatches with her scythe. 

Of all the city people Terra had imagined taking over Wayfinder Farm, he hadn’t imagined Aqua. He had thought about Ven, naive and innocent but ultimately good at heart, or like Xehanort, the man pushing for Pelican Town to adopt the JojaMart lifestyle, trying to run Leon’s general store out of business. He has never stopped to think about someone like Aqua, someone who was somehow able to laugh and joke with him even while up to her elbows in dirt and rotting weeds. He found he was maybe happier that he hadn’t thought about it before.

When the sun was going down and it was becoming dangerous to swing an axe, she invited him inside. It was exactly as bleak as Terra imagined, complete with patchwork holes in the ceiling covered by tarp and tape, but the lantern inside was bright and the cooler at the foot of her bed was full.

“Sorry I don’t have much,” Aqua said as she tossed a can of lemonade at him. He cracked it open and savored the tartness of it for about half a second before chugging the rest of the can. Across the small room, Aqua did the same.

“You’ll get there,” Terra said. “It always takes a little time.”

Aqua nodded as she gazed around the space, looking thoughtful now.

“So,” Terra began after a few moments of silence, “what convinced you to move out to the middle of nowhere like this?”

Aqua shrugged, sitting on top of her cooler. Her fingers fiddled with the metal tab of her can. “I dunno, really. My grandfather left me this place when he died. Told me that… he knew I’d need it one day.”

Terra was at a loss for words for a moment before he finally found his voice. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Don’t be. He’s long passed.” Her eyes focused on the can in front of her. Terra cast around desperately for a new topic, something to bring the joviality back into the conversation. His eyes fell on the cooler Aqua was sitting on. “So are you subsisting on lemonade cans or is there food in there too?”

Aqua laughed a little. Terra suspected it was forced, but she seemed genuinely grateful to be moving on past the topic of her grandfather and didn’t push it. 

“No, I’ve got some canned ravioli in there too.” She grinned when Terra looked horrified.

“Canned ravioli? God no. You should come down to the saloon tomorrow night. Cid makes one hell of a pizza.” Terra pushed away from the wall he had been leaning on. “For being a saloon and all.”

“We’ll see,” Aqua said, standing up as well. “It’s a bit of a hike for me, and I’ve got so much work to do out here…”

“C’mon, my treat. Let a guy show you some local hospitality, huh?” Was Terra laying it on a little thick? Maybe. But was it working? Well…

Aqua smiled. Even in the low light of her lantern, her blue eyes seemed to sparkle. 

“Tell you what. You come out here tomorrow and help me clear some more junk out, and I’ll take you up on the offer. Sound good?” She held her hand out again. Terra took it, giving it a firm shake. He was glad the low light hid the blush on his cheeks.

“Miss Aqua, you’ve got yourself a deal.”


	2. 2 Hearts- Harvest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's nothing wrong with helping a friend out, mom. Even if she is the pretty new farmer in town.

Spring was probably Terra’s favorite season. The wind blew cool through the valley, carrying away the sun’s heat with it. His mom, Elena, spent most of her days caring for the town’s flower gardens, while Ven preferred spending his time swimming in the lake west of Aerith’s fields of animals. When Terra had been younger, he would join his brother, savoring the sweet smell of salmonberry flowers and listening to the lowing of cows while the clouds crawled by overhead. Now that Ven was older and didn’t need the supervision, though, he found himself going out to the lake less and less. Other things had started to fill his time- lugging fertilizer around town for his mother, helping her get water from the nearby creek, and lately, helping the newest member of Stardew Valley get settled into her new life.

While Aqua was a hard worker, she also wasn’t used to living in a world where everything she could and could not do was decided by the season. More than once, he’d found a note in his mailbox kindly asking if he wouldn’t mind stopping by Wayfinder Farm when he had a moment.

“Another one,” Elena said, closing the door against the wind. She had the mail in her hands, Terra noticed as he cracked another egg into the bowl in front of him. She was waving one particular letter at him, a wry grin on her face. “This young lady must really appreciate your, uh, help.”

“Ma,” Terra groaned as he snatched the paper from her. He took a second to notice the handwriting on the front, the way his name looked in lovely loops and curls, before tucking it away in his pocket. She really did have such lovely handwriting.

“I’m just helping her out while she gets settled,” Terra said. He poured the eggs into the heated skillet with a low hiss before setting the bowl in the sink and grabbing a spatula.

“You know what would really help her out?” Elena asked as she settled herself at the kitchen table. It was a little table, barely big enough for three, with a wooden table well worn from being cleaned. “A husband.”

Terra rolled his eyes. “I’ve known her for three months, ma. I’m _just_ helping. That's it.”

“Mhmm,” Elena hummed. Her fingers flicked through the remaining mail, sorting letters from her friends around town, bills, and other miscellaneous things from the pile. A large JojaMart ad found its way to the trash almost immediately. _Twenty percent off your entire purchase!_ the garish page proclaimed in bright blues and reds, alongside pictures of beautiful fresh produce unlike anything Terra had ever seen in their local mart.

The ads had been popping up in their mailbox more and more lately. The first one, announcing the new store, had shown up nearly a year ago. _Grand Opening!_ it proclaimed. _JojaMart is proud to be a part of your community!_ Similar flyers found their way all around town- in the Stardrop Saloon, the library door, even the community bulletin board outside of Leon’s general store.

The whole town had come out for the grand opening, of course. Not much happened in their sleepy town, and anything new and exciting was worth a look. They gathered around the shiny new store’s entrance, trying to peer through the tinted glass at the interior.

“Waste of space,” Leon said from his spot near the front of the crowd. “They’ll sell nothing I don’t already stock.”

Aerith placed a hand on his shoulder, looking sympathetic. “We know, Squall.”

“Yeah,” Tifa agreed. “Ain’t nothing gonna take down Leon General!”

Leon shook his head to hide the hint of a smile.

And yet, Tifa hadn’t been entirely correct, had she? The gentleman in change of the Stardew Valley branch of JojaMart, an older bald man named Xehanort, seemed determined to run the general store out of business. And Joja Co., with their seemingly endless resources, were always running this sale or that deal on fruits and vegetables half a year out of season. As much as Terra liked Leon, there was something about getting fresh strawberries in the middle of winter that was too tempting to resist, even if he did feel guilty every time he spent a cent in the shining, sterile place.

Terra shook his head and pulled the pan of scrambled eggs from the burner. As he started dividing the steaming eggs among the three plates he’d laid out on the counter, the thumping of feet signified his younger brother’s entrance to the kitchen.

“Mornin’ Terra!” he all but shouted as he snagged a filled plate from the counter. “Smells delicious!”

Terra rolled his eyes, but his smile as he carried the other plates to the table was genuine. Ven quickly set the table while Terra grabbed condiments from the fridge.

“So,” Elena began once the family was seated around the table, “when do we get to meet the nice new farmer, Terra?”

Ven grinned at Terra around a mouthful of eggs and ketchup and made a sound that Terra assumed was either choking or agreement. Terra waved his fork at her.

“You’ve met her, ma. She stopped by to give you those mushrooms you posted about on the community board, remember?”

“I do remember, in fact. But I figured, since she seemed so important…” Elena smirked at him in a way that made it clear just want kind of “important” she was talking about. Terra shook his head, though the letter in his pocket felt ever so slightly heavier.

“She’s just a friend, and barely that. I’ve known her for less than three month, and she’s just moved in to town. I’m helping her while she gets used to living here in the valley.”

Elena nodded, but the smirk didn’t quite leave her face. “Whatever you say.”

* * *

 

Once breakfast was over and Ven was busy washing dishes in the sink, Terra headed down the hall to his room to open the letter that was weighing heavy in his pocket.

Did he think of her as a friend? He certainly hadn’t meant to. He had just been trying to help out a new member of the community, make her feel welcome, but there was something about the way she spoke to him, the way she found time in her busy schedule to help out the people Terra considered to be like family. She’d only been living on Wayfinder Farm for a season, but she already felt more like part of the valley than Xehanort and his shiny, impersonal JojaMart ever would. She belonged to the valley now, in a strange way, just like everybody else.

But were they friends?

Terra slid his thumb beneath the lip of the envelope, tearing it open and pulling out the letter inside.

 _Hi Terra!_ It began.

_I hope you’re doing well. I was wondering if maybe you would have the time to stop by tomorrow morning? The first season’s harvest should be ready, and I’d really appreciate the help. If you’ve busy, though, no worries!_

_Your friend,_   
_Aqua_

Terra brushed his thumb across the parting lines, biting his cheek in thought. Yeah, he supposed they were friends, weren’t they? They’d gone out for pizza at the saloon, he’d helped her tear out decades of overgrown weeds.

Yeah. Friends. He tucked the letter into the drawer of his nightstand alongside all of her other letters, a smile on his face.

Friends.

* * *

Terra rolled up to Wayfinder Farm just as the sun was beginning to peek into the valley with a fresh coffee in each hand. Even though he’d been part of the clearing effort, he was still amazed at the amount of land Aqua had managed to clear in just one season, even with his help. A modest field of fruits and veggies dotted the landscape in front of her house. He set aside the coffee mugs on the porch to knock on the door. Aqua emerged pretty quickly, looking bleary eyed, with her straw hat perched carefully on top of unbrushed bedhead.

“Good morning, miss,” Terra said, picking up the coffee off the floor of the porch and offering it to her. Aqua took it gratefully.

“Thanks for coming out to help today,” she said over the steaming cup. “I know it’s not a lot, but I really appreciate it.”

Terra shrugged, grabbing his own coffee and leaning against a banister. He tried to ignore the way it creaked in protest of his weight. “It’s nothing. I’m always awake around now anyway.” He hid a yawn in his coffee cup, but her smile and quiet laugh said she’d seen it anyway. Terra found that he didn’t mind. He’d take a nap later.

Aqua looked out over the field in front of her little house. Tifa had done a great job with patching up the holes in her roof and porch- if Terra hadn’t know they had been there, he would have never guessed that the place had been falling apart just a few weeks ago. Wayfinder Farm felt more and more like a comfortable place to live every day.

With a sigh, Aqua set her empty coffee cup on the windowsill. Terra chugged the last of his coffee, ignoring the burn in his throat, and followed suit.

“Ready to start?” Aqua asked. Without waiting for an answer, she tossed him a set of heavy duty gloves from a wooden crate she kept at the base of the stairs to her house. Terra fumbled with them for a moment before pulling them on.

“Guess so.”

Aqua offered him a small, fond smile before walking out into the field with a basket and vanishing between the plants. Terra watched the greenery shiver as she moved between their delicate stalks before picking up his own basket from the grass and moving down his own row or plants, carefully pulling their harvest from the ground.

It took him a couple of hours of sweaty work, bent in the dirt pulling at little tufts of green, but he eventually found himself with a basket full of fresh looking parsnips, pale white beneath clumps of damp earth. Aqua, equally sweaty, grinned at him over her own basket full of fresh vegetables, the glow of first harvest in her eyes.

Terra looked down at the fruits- or rather, vegetables- of his labor and couldn’t help the proud little smile of his own. There was something satisfying about pulling your own food from the earth, he supposed.

He and Aqua found themselves comfortable seats in the shade cast by her house. Aqua busied herself with sorting their harvest into piles, one for selling and one for keeping and eating.

“You’re not gonna keep even one of the good ones?” Terra asked as he watched her sort. Anything with major flaws, anything runty or strangely shaped, went into the rather small basket of veggies Aqua intended to keep for herself. The rest, the fruits and vegetables that looked good enough to eat, went into the large basket destined for the market. Aqua hummed, her straw-brimmed hat bent over the basket of parsnips Terra had pulled.

“What do I need with good vegetables?” she asked, tossing a parsnip into the sell basket before pulling another one to inspect. “The ugly ones will fry up just as well.”

Terra supposed she had a point. His mom had been guilty of the same thing, after all, haggling with Leon over the price of his ugliest produce so she could buy enough to feed two growing, hungry boys. Speaking of…

“How much do you want for a few of those parsnips?”

Aqua looked up from the one she had been inspecting, looking surprised. “Why?”

Terra shrugged. “My mom was looking to get a few from Leon later this week for a stir fry. Figured I’d skip the middleman and just pick them up fresh from the best new farmer in town.”

Aqua bowed her head again. Terra suspected she was hiding her blush with that huge hat of hers. After a few moments, she met his eyes again. Her cheeks were still suspiciously pink.

“For you? No charge.”

Terra tried to protest, but it seemed she’d made up her mind. She picked a few off the top of the basket of veggies destined for market and all but forced them into his hands.

“Please,” she said. “It’s the least I can do to pay you for the help. Probably way cheaper than actually hiring someone after all.”

Terra contemplated the wisdom of her words for a moment before tucking the parsnips into his pack. When he turned back, Aqua was standing from her baskets, job done for the day. Terra looked around, surprised to notice that the sun was nearly set. In the distance, an owl hooted. He stood slowly, brushing the dirt from his hands and knees, before turning to look at Aqua fully. She was staring out through the trees surrounding the outside of her property. Terra could see a path roughly hewn through the trees where she was looking heading toward the south of the property, where Aerith’s farm was. In the dwindling sunlight, Aqua’s hair took in a purple gleam, ruffling gently in the wind. A small part of Terra wanted to reach out and run his hands through her hair. Most of the girls in Pelican Town had long hair, the kind that always seemed unwieldy in the windy summer, but Aqua’s hair was cropped short in a way that encouraged movement.

She was pretty.

Terra shook his head, shaking away the strange thought that had spring, unbidden, to the forefront of his mind. Maybe he was more tired than he thought.

“I think I’m gonna head home,” he announced. Aqua turned back to him, seemingly shaken from her reverie.

“Yeah, of course,” she said with a small smile. A step forward brought her close enough that Terra could have reached out, felt just how soft her hair really was. He balled his hands into fists at his sides. “Get home safe. And thanks again.”

Terra nodded, hefting his pack onto his shoulder, careful of the delicious cargo contained inside. His mom made the best stir fry, after all. “Anytime. I mean it.”

Aqua stood at the edge of her property and waved until he vanished over the hill back toward Pelican Town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to sailorscoutsaix on Tumblr for helping me figure out Terra's cutscenes and his characterization. You're awesome. Also thanks to the Terraqua discord for helping me out and listening to me throw ideas around.
> 
> Got questions? Hit me up on Tumblr at writinginavacuum.tumblr.com and ask me!

**Author's Note:**

> Wheeee this was supposed to be a oneshot. Whoops.
> 
> Thanks to the Terraqua discord for listening to me blather about a completely different fic I was supposed to be writing only for me to churn this out in four hours. Y'all are awesome.


End file.
